Anti-abortion Leader Sentenced

Thirty-eight People Arrested For Violating An Injunction Regarding A Buffer Zone Outside A Clinic Were Found Guilty Of Indirect Criminal Contempt.

July 10, 1993|By Lynne Bumpus-Hooper of The Sentinel Staff

TITUSVILLE — A judge on Friday sentenced Keith Tucci, leader of Operation Rescue National, to a month in jail for violating a court order during an abortion protest, saying Tucci bore the blame for a number of other ''good people'' being arrested.

Visiting Judge John Rudd imposed a six-month jail term on Tucci but suspended five months of the sentence. During the five months, Tucci will serve supervised probation. Rudd also assessed fines and costs against Tucci that could total about $700.

The judge found 38 others guilty of indirect criminal contempt. They had been arrested April 10 for violating an injunction prohibiting demonstrations inside a buffer zone at the Aware Woman Center for Choice in Melbourne. The judge placed them on supervised probation for six months, and they face costs similar to Tucci's.

If the defendants violate the injunction, they face six months in jail, the judge said.

The sentences were handed down after three days of testimony in the non-jury trial.

Tucci and Bruce Cadle, another leader in the anti-abortion movement, said they expect the verdicts to add momentum to their nationwide ''Cities of Refuge'' campaign, which kicked off with a rally in Melbourne Friday night.

The judge said he appreciated the positions of the defendants but found them guilty because ''to do otherwise would be to condone anarchy.''

For Tucci, Rudd had separate, harsher words.

''I blame you primarily for these good people being here,'' Rudd told Tucci. ''I place the responsibility on your shoulders, right where it belongs,'' Rudd said.

He ordered Tucci to report to the Brevard County jail at 8 a.m. on Monday.

Rudd said it was ''hypocrisy and showmanship'' when Tucci screamed that an officer was hurting his child when the officer put a hand protectively on the 2-year-old boy's back, as was shown in a videotape of the arrest.

Tucci's co-defendants showed no ill will toward

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him as they left the courtroom. . Two women were acquitted of the charges because of a lack of proper identification.

''It was an honor to stand up with you,'' one man said as he clasped Tucci's hand.

Tucci was philosophical after the verdict, which he called an injustice.

''When you compare my inconvenience, my family's inconvenience, to the value of human life, it is nothing. This comes with the territory of carrying out the mission. It is not as hard to bear as a baby being dismembered or losing its life,'' Tucci said. He refused to characterize himself as a martyr, saying the martyrs were the children whose lives were lost in abortions.

He said the sentence will be appealed. Appeals of the injunction are pending before the Florida Supreme Court and a U. S. District Court in Atlanta.

Earlier in the day, Rudd denied defense requests that he remove himself from the case and a motion for mistrial based on his telling defendants he was tired of them saying they were arrested for praying on a sidewalk.

Central Florida has been designated as one of the seven ''Cities'' sites nationwide. Speakers are scheduled in Melbourne over the weekend. Abortions are not scheduled at the clinic today, so police protesters and clinic operators are expecting a relatively quiet weekend with peaceful demonstrations.

However, abortions will resume Monday, the day after Randall Terry, a speaker and founder of another anti-abortion group called Operation Rescue, speaks in Melbourne.

''It will be an interesting week,'' Cadle said Friday.

''When we've been hammered in the past, it's been a wake up call,'' Tucci said.

Melbourne police were pleased that costs of the protection they provided this spring to the clinic, the protesters and the neighborhood during the 12 weeks of an Operation Rescue National leadership training class and the following demonstrations would be recovered.

As to whether the sentences will deter other protests, they remained reserved.

Several of the individual protesters said they might be back, but they would stay out of the buffer zone.

Others vowed to continue the fight for the unborn.

''We can't back down. We can't cower, even if we face great difficulty,'' Sheila Eschenberg of Malabar said.

About 90 defendants still face trial next week on the same charges, said Assistant State Attorney Michelle Jackson, who said she was very pleased with Friday's verdict.